To my mind, the implementation of English as THE communicative tongue is simply out of place. The first reason being that the acquistion of English at an academic level is to a large extent a passive one. Students with poor English skills rarely reach the requested level without attending a tailor-made language course. Furthermore, the recruitment of teaching staff is not as easy as it seems. As it happens, at grammar school level unqualified teachers have been appointed after the establishment of the English-German matura. It goes without saying that similar procedures on university level would have far-reaching consequences on students' achievements. Might I suggest that it would be wiser to first think of an adequate recruitment system rather than take headlong actions.

Michael Ruefer